Mahmoud Khalil, an Algerian citizen who was born in Syria, is a former Columbia University graduate student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday for leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Khalil has acted as a spokesman for the pro-Palestine student group “Columbia University Apartheid Divest,” which states it is “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.”
His attorney, Amy Greer, told the Associated Press that Mahmoud has a green card, and is married to an American citizen.
“We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in connection with Khalil’s arrest.
On Monday, President Trump stated, “ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come.”
Khalil’s arrest has sparked a firestorm of controversy, with his supporters claiming he is a “political prisoner,” while his legal team fights his deportation.
Immigration news outlet Border Hawk sat down with Matt O’Brien, a former immigration judge and director of investigations at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, to discuss Khalil’s case and learn whether or not he can be removed from the U.S.
“It’s a myth that people who have green cards can’t be deported. It’s a myth that people who are married to U.S. citizens can’t be deported,” O’Brien said. “If you are a foreign national who is here on a green card, you have to obey the laws.”
“There’s another myth that’s perpetuated regularly by the mainstream media, which is that the constitutional rights that foreign nationals have when they are here are absolutely identical to those of U.S. citizens. But if you stop and think about it, that doesn’t make any sense, because if you’re not a U.S. citizen, you can be deported.”
“Citizens have a constitutional right to remain in the United States because they are members of the political club that we call the U.S.A. Foreign nationals are not. And that’s the situation that this individual [Mahmoud Khalil] finds himself in.”
Border Hawk senior correspondent Wid Lyman contributed to this report.
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